Payrolls among IT services firms grew by nearly 32,000 workers in 2005, a 2.7% gain for the year, the Labor Department reported Friday. Labeled as computer-systems design and related services by the department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, IT services companies employed 1,206,200 workers in December.

Increased IT employment creates a challenge for recruiters seeking to find qualified applicants for jobs. "That is the reason that it has become so difficult to find multiple quality candidates for positions at most levels and professions. They are all working," Nate Viall, president of Viall and Associates, an IT recruitment company in Des Moines, Iowa, said in an E-mail message.

Internet publishing and broadcasting grew by 2,700 jobs, a nearly 8% increase, to 36,700.

But payroll growth in other IT sectors hardly budged. Makers of computer and peripheral equipment employed 216,100 workers last year, adding a mere 1,400 jobs. Similarly, Internet services providers, search portals, and data processing companies increased payrolls by 600 position to 36,700. Telecommunications firms trimmed payrolls by 1,600 last year to 1,029,900.

Why the disparity between strong growth in IT services compared with most other IT sectors? Demand by businesses to exploit their current IT infrastructures requires expertise they don't necessarily have on staff, so they turn to IT services companies to fill the gap. Consolidation within other areas of the tech sector limits payroll growth.

All figures are seasonally adjusted, and November and December numbers are preliminary. Each month, the government surveys some 160,000 businesses and government agencies covering about 400,000 worksites, which includes about one-third of all nonfarm payroll workers.